1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the high severity conversion of biomass in the presence of a catalyst to produce an olefin rich product, and more particularly to the high severity conversion of biomass to an olefin rich product with the subsequent upgrade of the olefins and other produced hydrocarbons to a fuel of higher quantity and increased value.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pyrolysis, in particular flash pyrolysis, has been proposed as a process for converting solid biomass material to liquid products. Pyrolysis in general refers to a process in which a feedstock is heated in an oxygen-poor or oxygen-free atmosphere. If solid biomass is used as the feedstock of a pyrolysis process, the process produces gaseous, liquid, and solid products. It has been found that the liquid yield can be increased, at the expense of the gas and solid yields, by operating the pyrolysis process such that the feedstock is heated rapidly, and the reaction time is kept short. However, it can also be advantageous to increase the production of olefinic gaseous products which can be upgraded to high value liquid fuels. In flash pyrolysis, the time for heating and reacting the biomass feedstock is on the order of seconds.
Because of the fuel quality and quantity benefits, it is desirable to develop improved methods/systems for biomass conversion wherein olefin production is maximized with subsequent olefin/bio-oil upgrade.